Green City Market’s Chicago Chef BBQ Produced Very Warm Feelings

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Two things are clear about the annual Chef BBQ fundraiser staged by Chicago’s Green City Market, which took place Thursday (July 21) evening. One is that the BBQ will be one of the best food and beverage tasting events on the calendar of food-centric Chicago. The other, it seems, is that the summer weather may always be a challenge for this event.

The availability of cold craft beers, cocktails, soft drinks and water — especially water — was crucial on an evening when Chicago made like a slow oven with a heat index above 100. Yet this was less disruptive than the downpour that affected the BBQ in 2015. The summer storm that descended on Chicago this time at least had the courtesy to wait until after the participants had struck camp.

One of the favorite features of the Green City Market Chef BBQ is the opportunity to meet and chat with some of the city’s top chefs and producers, many of them working the line or the beer taps. Many of them are leaders in the local farm to table (and farm to glass) movement with whom FamilyFarmed has longstanding associations.

Here is a photo essay about how Good Food and Good Drink can make a very hot night cool. All photos by Bob Benenson/FamilyFarmed unless otherwise noted.

• FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Festival & Conference this past March featured a panel on chefs who are Good Food activists, moderated by Kris Moon, vice president of the James Beard Foundation. Not surprisingly, all four chefs who were on that panel were also serving their culinary art at the Chef BBQ.

The “Farm to Table: Keeping It Real” series that is running on Good Food on Every Table includes articles focused on the work being done by Bayless and Berens.

• Many other great restaurants were represented at the Chef BBQ including:

Uncommon Ground, a pioneer in Chicago farm to table, which this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Helen Cameron (left) and Michael Cameron (in blue shirt on right) are the owners; Helen Cameron recently participated in our “Farm to Table: Keeping It Real” series.

The Chicago location of the The Kitchen — a socially conscious restaurant group based in Colorado and co-founded by entrepreneur Kimbal Musk — participated in the Chef BBQ. The Kitchen Community, a nonprofit started by the restaurants, has created more than 200 school food gardens over the past five years. Johnny Anderes, the Chicago location’s head chef, participated in our Farm to Table series to discuss his emphasis on local and sustainable sourcing. (Photo provided by The Kitchen)

Sarah Stegner of Prairie Grass Cafe (white coat on left) helped establish and grow Green City Market after its founding in the late 1990s and has remained active ever since.

Ten Delicious Facts About Chicago Good Food

Family Farmed is proud of the blossoming Good Food movement in our hometown of Chicago, so we put together a list of 10 Delicious Facts about Good Food in the Windy City (click on the photo to read the article). We want our readers to know what's happening in your hometown, too! If you would like to contribute a column about your Good Food scene, please contact bob@familyfarmed.org

Good Food n. /güd/ /füd/

1. Delicious, healthy food, accessible to all, produced as close to home as possible by family farmers and producers who use sustainable, humane, and fair practices. 2. A fast-growing movement creating vast numbers of jobs and economic development by providing people with food that matches their values.